Household pests can be an expensive problem for homeowners and even more so for the garden.
You can’t put a price on the value of protecting plants that have taken months to grow, only to have slugs come and nibble away at the hard work.
However, there’s no need to spend a fortune on drugs to repel these slimy pests when you can spend less than £1 on an effective trap.
Lauren Liff shares tips on organic gardening for Dabah Landscape Designs, explaining that cola is a surefire way to curb a slug problem.
He said: “Since coke was originally used as a health tonic, you might ask what good could it do for our gardens? Turns out coke can be used to kill snails!”
Some gardeners insist on beer to repel slow-moving pests from their plants, as suggested by gardening expert David Domoney, but cola works just as well. In addition, it is a much safer alternative to pesticides or poison.
As for knowing when to spot a slug problem, slugs start devouring the garden in the spring before most other insects are even close to causing damage.
Suspects are easily identified as slugs that leave behind a trail of silver slime wherever they go and feed on plant leaves. Lauren warned, “They chew ragged holes in the leaves and can sometimes swallow a seedling whole.”
Fortunately for anyone battling relentless garden slugs, a cola trap is easy to make in minutes. All you need is a cheap Coke – just 70p at Sainsbury’s and an empty liter water bottle or bowl.
Organic gardening expert Lauren said: “To use the Coca-Cola method to control slugs in your garden, fill a shallow bowl or cup with Coca-Cola and leave it in the garden overnight.
“Just like using beer, the slugs are attracted to the sugar in the soda and lure them into the bowl. Then the slugs find their way into the sugary drink and suffer a death comparable to drowning in acid.”
Cut off the top of the plastic bottle of the water bottle door, remove the cap and place the top of the bottle upside down with the neck of the bottle pointing towards the bottom.
Fill it up to the top of the bottle with cola and wait for the snails to go down into the trap where they drown.
According to gardening icon David Domoney, a DIY beer (or cola) trap works best when slightly hidden.
He explained on ITV’s This Morning: “I’d bury them in the ground so they’re at least an inch off the ground to stop the fights falling because of my mistakes.”
Make a small hole in the ground near the plant (or plants) that snails like most in your garden, then bury a small bowl so that only the liquid in the bowl is visible.
David urged: “It’s almost like a dinner bell for the snails when they come in and you can remove them humanely.”
